1st District: Harris Supports Trump National Emergency Declaration

Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01) made the following statement on President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to protect border security and facilitate funding of the border wall:

“I support the president’s efforts to fully fund comprehensive border security by re-allocating unused funds from other programs, such as counter-narcotics programs directly related to the flow of illegal drugs across our southern border. Just last month, CBP had its largest fentanyl drug bust at the southern border, capturing enough fentanyl to kill 57 million people – that’s enough drugs to kill the population of Maryland nine times over. The sex trafficking industry, a horrific and demoralizing crime, is also thriving from a lack of border security. The exploitation and rape of these women and children occurs both en route to the United States and after their arrival. MS-13 gang violence is rampant in the United States, and is a serious threat to our communities in Maryland. The president has worked hard to secure our border, and I support his decision to declare

Letters to Editor

Oh, give me a break, Andy… The National Emergency is that people like you, McConnell and Trump are in positions of power. God help us!! And, by the way… the only thing Trump works hard at is making sure he fills his head with FoxNews headlines every morning before he goes downstairs and sits in the Oval Office.

I watched and listened carefully to Mr. Trump’s press conference on TV today. I heard him state that he did “not need” to declare a national emergency, but would do so to “speed up” the building of his Wall. In effect, he was saying there is NO national emergency. Why support something that not only is not needed (in his own words) but also would take funds away from a military that is showing signs of an increasing level of insufficient training?

As usual, Dr. Opposite veers 180 degrees from the facts.
No, this is IT!
NOW is the constitutional crisis we’ve been anticipating.
We must do anything and everything we possibly can to fight back against Herr Twitter’s usurpation of congressional powers.
(Aside: Who in their right mind would try to bolster his pressing-need-to-do-this argument by also arguing he doesn’t really need to do it?)

I think that the point is that CBP caught the fentanyl being brought into the country. That doesn’t demonstrate the need for more border security. It suggests that, in fact, perhaps we have enough now. Harris is right about women being raped en route to the U.S., but again more border security will not prevent that. These women and children are coming here to seek shelter and escape gang and drug violence and crime in their own countries. Instead of investing in a wall, which even the border patrol authorities suggest will not increase security, the money could better be used to hire more people to process refugee applications and move these people safely into our country more quickly. The longer they are held up at the border, the greater opportunity there is for rape and other criminal acts directed against them. I don’t know of anyone beyond the president and right-wing supporters like Harris who believes that this is a national emergency. It’s just a political act to usurp the power of Congress and make our country more and more like a banana republic. Hopefully, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress will reassert their power and restore checks and balances to our government, which under Trump is becoming a presidential dictatorship (with the aid of extremist Republicans in Congress like Congressman Harris and Senator McConnell. The third branch of our constitutional system of government is the judiciary and perhaps they also will act to limit the president’s crassly political act.